I dont want Windows 11, how easy is it to use Linux?
Im just kind of done with Windows and 10 has been stable, but 11 seems to be even more intrusive and I find all the AI 'assistance' to be incredibly annoying. Im just kind of done with MS and Office and I want to try something else.
I dont have many needs. I run LibreOffice spreadsheet and word processor and the only other software I need to work is CORELdraw and CORELpaint as I still do a fair bit of design work on them and Ive been using them for 30 years so I dont want to switch. Other than that its just browsing (Firefox), email (Thunderbird) and TurboTax.
My question is how do I know whats going to work until I try it? And which version of Linux is easiest and most stable? I dont want to have to keep upgrading, I just want a stable usable fairly easy to learn OS that works with what Ive got as Im unlikely to be changing much. Suggestions?
I strongly recommend against the traditional advice of installing Ubuntu. They’re currently rapidly enshitifying (both on a technical level with snaps and product level with Ubuntu Pro). Debian is as easy to use as Ubuntu these days. Or there’s Linux Mint.
PopOS is a pretty decent “plug and play” Linux distro. You still have to configure it to your liking, but it’s Ubuntuesque in its user friendliness.
My concern with PopOS is that it hasn't had a release since 2022, and they are currently blocking the their next release, due in 2024, on re-writing the desktop environment in Rust.
Otherwise 10/10 distro, super easy to set up without the enshitification of Ubuntu.
Currently I would refrain from recommending Pop!_OS to new users, not because I don't like the distribution (quite the opposite, in fact) but because they are currently developing their own desktop environment to replace the current one, which is a customized GNOME, and the transition is expected to happen sometime this year. A change this major is bound to be disruptive to a new user. I agree it'll be a great choice once COSMIC gets a stable release and is implemented into the distro proper, but until then I'd steer newcomers to Linux Mint (or other distros in the Debian family) instead.
Debian should strike the ideal balance of usability and googleability.
The biggest problem with Debian for most people i think is going to be old packages. I know backports exist and all that but there should be a variant that out of the box uses a recent but stable kernel (same as testing maybe) with user-facing packages being the same age as they are on Fedora, where they’re very fresh but have had a couple weeks of testing to round down the cutting edge.
There’s “Debian testing” which is a bit less outdated. You can install that to effectively have all of your packages come from backports.
For most packages it’s nice to have old and stable stuff. Do you really care which version of gnome or htop you’re running? I only need to upgrade Firefox. They have their own repo you can set up so it’s always up to date.
I would agree that versions of things like DE and command line utilities probably aren’t of much concern to the majority. Personally I like those to be newer just so I get to play with the things I see devs blogging about but I’m probably in the minority there.
Where it matters more is with packages that the user may be using on multiple platforms or use in collaboration with users of other platforms. Under macOS and Windows, users are generally well ahead of even Debian Testing, which can cause issues with missing features, data incompatibilities, etc.
As noted before backports can address this, as can flatpaks but the user needs to know to look in those places, and so I think there’s a place for a distro where the system is ultra stable but user oriented packages are only a couple of weeks behind.
I actually use Debian on my PC. I set it up with only a command line interface, then installed open box to run Steam and other GUI programs if I needed.
I have primarily used debian for decades but I installed PopOS on a family computer and it's immediately easily usable for a media/web desktop. But for more traditional office application type work, especially for people coming from windows, it can be pretty jarring getting used to Gnome's idiosyncrasies. I really think this will massively improve once the Cosmic desktop environment is stable.
Mint is a solid choice though, Cinnamon DE is a little closer to what windows users may be used to.
I also think debian or fedora with KDE are really attractive for a productivity use case too. I prefer a really light LXQT DE myself but it's not something I'd ever recommend to new users.
Yeah - I went with Pop!_os after wanting to move away from Windows three or so years ago, and it’s been great!
I gave up on Ubuntu as soon as it started to trick you into installing snaps when you're using apt/apt-get (and therefore expecting real debs from repo).
I wouldn’t recommend installing Ubuntu and it’s not even because of that. I have never had a distribution that broke as often as Ubuntu did.
I stayed with Xubuntu 18 LTS for a long time and then finally switched to Fedora KDE last year. No regrets. Fedora is fairly "vanilla", KDE is comfortable, and it feels like Fedora strikes a nice balance on being cutting edge but not bleeding edge.
For some reason, people don't think of Fedora as beginner-friendly, but in my experience, it's solid, nice to use, and very easy to setup.
I'd say it's easy to use but there's a bit less software support from random packages online.
The main area in which I’ve found it’s less friendly is with NVIDIA drivers. It may have improved since then but at least as it was a year or two ago, one had to run a number of terminal commands to get it all working and persistent through kernel updates, and the process is lengthened if one has secure boot has turned on. Definitely not as easy as Ubuntu’s radio button install or popOS’ driver-preloaded installer.
I tried Debian many times. It is not nearly as easy as Ubuntu, and Wi-Fi don't work out of the box on some laptops even with the nonfree drivers. That's a big deal for regular users.
MX-Linux might be a good compromise but it often requires minor fixes to their mirrors that involve the terminal. That is a common issue on a fresh install.
Linux Mint is most certainly a great suggestion but Ubuntu is not nearly as bad as the comment portrays. I'm running LTS and it is solid.
I never felt confident enough to install Fedora and I'm an advanced user.
Mint is usually the goto answer for beginners. I personally prefer KDE versions and is probably a better starting-off point if you're familiar with Windows.
My wife recently made the swap too for similiar reasons, and really likes Zorin. I am mildly peeved at how they rebrand many things, but OTOH I get how it really simplifies the user experience to install Zorin Connect instead of KDE connect.
So the only things that might be a problem are Turbotax and the COREL. Everything else is native. I used the browser versions of Turbotax, which worked fine, but I hear the installable product is a nightmare. The reports of COREL working via Wine vary, but odds are better that they work these days than before. I can't really speak to how well they'd work, as I lack the software to test.
Inkscape has the choice to use CORELdraw key bindings on initial launch, so that might be an acceptable option. Krita might be an option to replace CORELpaint, but again, I have no deep experience with COREL. I do know that the used Wacom tablets I fell into were basically plug and play.
One thing that I did was use Rufus to create a bootable Windows install using these instructions. I used a USB 3.1 NVME enclosure and it works pretty damn great as an alternative to full dual-booting. Particularily for doing firmware updates from vendors that don't support linux options. Especially if an extensive list of drivers is downloaded via something like SDIO, it becomes portable between computers. Mine can boot fairly seamlessly between any computer with an AMD GPU. If you want to do even better than that, insure you have DDU installed so you can purge old graphics drivers when swapping between systems.
I'm going to be a vocal second for Linux Mint here.
Their flagship 'Cinnamon' environment is well designed to be very Windows-transition friendly. Same 'start button' style location, most keyboard shortcuts will be the same, and these days it is very good at 'just working' out of the box.
Mint is very Linux beginner friendly, but by no means does that mean it isn't a fully capable operating system. I've been using it for something like a decade now and I haven't looked back - the only Windows install I have left is on a dual-boot laptop I use for contracting field work (some companies need you to run specific Windows programs).
I'm able to do everything I want to do. Obviously the basics of web browsing / email, but also things like playing games meant for Windows (I often go back to the Fallout series and also play Magic: The Gathering Arena) - Lutris helps with games, and Steam also helps run things on Linux with some settings inputs.
Edit images: GIMP. Edit and render video: Blender. Record or do live streaming: OBS Studio. 3D Printing: PrusaSlicer. The list goes on.
Why not let PewDiePie be the vocal third for Linux Mint? Turns out he's also into ricing on Arch Linux and enjoys a little light scripting. I figure if Pewds can make a successful go of it with both of these distros, linux might be ready to rock the desktop after all, and we're overthinking things in threads like these. Truly this is the strangest timeline...
The only advice I have for picking a distro is in the choice of window managers, which I think is more important. If you like the Mac style or intend to use Linux on a tablet, Gnome is the best choice. If you are looking for a workflow and system that is almost identical to Windows 7-10 (but better in every way) then take a look at KDE Plasma. That's what I prefer.
Since this is linux, one can install ten different window managers and use GDM or KDM to switch between them (and x11/wayland/etc) on login. If you like to tinker that much, that's what Arch is for. ;)
Hahahahhaah PewDiePie did a video on Linux! I'm partway into it right now and this is super funny, but also great that's he's adding his voice to this.
Yeah, I just about fell out of my chair when he showed his laptop customization. He just did more for advancing linux than anyone since Gabe himself. The linux youtube community is going to be dining on this for months and I seriously doubt we've seen his last linux video. He's been bitten hard by the tech bug now.
All of the heat he's getting for it today from various camps of open source gatekeepers is really rich, considering that the open source definition itself invalidates their concerns. I still think Bruce Perens explained it best.
I’d just like to say that those looking for a Mac style desktop should temper their expectations. Gnome is only superficially Mac-like and bears closer resemblance to smartphone/tablet style environments. Sadly, there are no true Mac-style DEs.
Closest I think anyone has come is ElementaryOS. I'm not much of an Apple user though, so I can't speak for just how close it truly gets to replicating that experience.
Elementary is nice. I particularly like how it’s stuck to its guns with a more lively and vibrant design, which makes it refreshing in an ocean of soulless flat designs.
It’s quite similar to Gnome in most aspects though, and so similarly is mobile-like.
I think the Budgie DE is more aesthetically similar to Mac in some ways, at least when compared to Gnome or KDE Plasma.
I would be a vocal 3rd, but I boxed up my old Mint server nearly 10 years ago- only because I went on a self-hosting hiatus. It was great. Cool to see it’s still right up there on recs.
I've been using mint for a few months. I prefer it to Windows mostly. But every once in a while something weird happens and it's hard to figure out what to do. And I'm very tech literate, with many years of programming experience including unix. So I can't imagine how the average person copes with it.
Does Mint still support KDE? I'm not seeing it listed on their download page and Wikipedia suggests they dropped it a few years ago. The need to manually replace a desktop environment is not ideal for attracting Windows users.
I personally use and love KDE but on a less beginner-friendly distribution. For what it's worth, the KDE project has its own recommendations.
Honestly, I forgot about that. There have almost always been various community spins so I didn't think twice.
If this was asked 10 years ago, a likely answer would be that it “supports” it in that you can install it, and it’ll function, but some parts might not act right, or some kind of weirdness would mean you’d be like (for example) on the support boards figuring out that 1/2 your application launch files need symlinking into this different location to show up or some really annoying, time consuming, but not impossible to fix issue.
NBD if you like fixing and fiddling with your machine… but kind of usually a deal breaker if you just want to escape Microsoft.
TLDR: stay off the Linux thin ice if you don’t love fiddling with DEs and config stuff.
Absolutely love Zorin OS. My son switched to it at age 10 and uses it for gaming (surprisingly easy to get working!)
Download a VM host (try Virtualbox, it’s free) and install Linux on top of it. Setting up the VM is probably going to be the hardest part. I would probably recommend Debian to start with but others say that Pop_OS and Linux Mint are both very user friendly so those may be better options for you.
If Corel’s software is a dealbreaker then things will be a bit harder. I know that some of their products do have native Linux versions. For those that don’t, you will need to install WINE and run the programs’ installers with it. I seem to remember having good luck with it in the past, but that was many years ago.
If everything works out you can install everything bare metal. Just be sure to backup all of your files before doing that in case something goes wrong. I’d recommend making a full system restore on an external drive.
I second this. There’s also no Linux distro that will just work perfectly where the fixes won’t be at least as complicated as setting up a VM on Windows.
I don’t know OPs technical background, but Linux does not explicitly require you have tons of technical skills. You just need to have patience and the ability to google your way out of any situation.
If you don’t want to go the VM route, Tails may be a good distro to demo for a while. It’s designed to run entirely off a bootable flash drive, so you can enjoy the full Linux experience without messing with your Windows partitions.
Big agree. I'm very much a noob and I was able to figure out how to set up dual boot Windows 11 and Linux Mint through following several different guides online, most of which were very good quality. If you're careful and do your research, you can make it work more easily than you might think!
I haven't tried Tails but I've heard good things. Ages ago I would use Puppy Linux for this, as it could fully load up into RAM with one of the minimal variants.
I'm a little surprised the Puppy Linux project is still alive.
A quick search will tell you whether there is a linux variant for your applications, and also list possible alternatives that might fit your need if the app in question does not have a native linux version.
From a super-quick search it would appear that TurboTax and both of the corel apps are not available natively on linux. If those apps are required then you might need to stop your search.
Assuming that they aren't blockers, the other part of your question is much easier to answer:
Pick either mint or ubuntu.
Both distros are designed slightly differently and you will tell immediately which one you will prefer just from looking at the screenshots for each. They're also incredibly popular and aimed at new users so there is a plethora of information out there to help you get started.
You'll get recommendations for every possible alternative linux distro, but until you decide that one of the above isn't suitable for you because of X, you don't need to bother looking elsewhere.
Is it necessary to use a desktop version of TurboTax? They have a web version
I tried to use the web version this year and it really sucks compared to the desktop version. It keeps trying to upsell you and costs more if you have a moderately complicated return (for example, you have some investments with dividends or interest income). When it is upselling, it is (intentionally) unclear whether you really need the upgrade or not. Also if you used desktop in the previous years, the online one won’t see those returns at all so you have to manually upload them. This is just dumb since you file through them so they clearly have copies. Apparently the products are made by separate teams that don’t communicate.
So in general Intuit is a scummy company but at least TurboTax desktop was pretty usable.
I was honestly surprised they still had a PC version. Intuit is pretty big on selling you web subscriptions these days.
Yeah I used the web version this year so I guess if it works in Firefox, it'll work on Linux.
I use FreeTaxUsa.com. Free federal taxes. A push of a button and $15 gets my state taxes automagically produced.
I think most people have already answered//provided guidance on your core questions, so I want to take a minute and talk about alternatives to wine. Not all windows software has a 1:1 linux equivalent, and not everything runs well under wine ( as you've discovered about turbotax, coreldraw, and corelpaint ). For those things, you have a few options.
The latter allows you to stay in linux, but run the select program(s) in windows environment. The idea is you setup a windows container/VM as a run time for your programs, and then "remotely" use them on linux with rdp. Because it's all on the same machine latency is essentially zero, and file access/clipboard is pretty seamless.
That is indeed a great option, particularly if you don't need intense GPU stuff.
It gets iffier when you need it to do stuff like flash firmware though.
If you have a spare GPU (two dGPU or an integrated + dedicated GPU) you can do dynamic passthrough, where you pass a GPU back and forth between host and guest.
That's pretty hard to set up, though, and it may not even be an option depending on how the motherboard is built.
It was more a comment to vord that it can be done, but not a recommendation to OP to go that far. It's certainly a leap in setup/knowledge from simply running a windows container/VM to getting dynamic passthrough working with it.
Second using the win apps containers. I tried running windows in vmware and it would slow to a crawl. The win apps experience is very nice once you get it set up, and it lets me run excel/PowerPoint/word when I need to. The directions are pretty technical and also jump around a bit, but it does work.
This may not turn out to apply for you, but you may also find yourself accidentally turning into more of a power user over time and if you do some of the derivative distributions can become frustrating. I used Mint Cinnamon for years and on rare occasion it is more confusing than using a less derived distribution. This commonly appears in the form of online guides explaining how to do a thing, but derivative distributions are often missing. This then means you have to learn how to correctly apply the guide, which often means needing to learn a bit of extra stuff.
As an example I recall from back then, Docker didn't have any relevant guides for Mint. This meant that I needed to figure out what the Ubuntu equivalents were and mostly follow those guides while also being careful to make relevant changes. Some software requires digging even further and following Debian instructions instead. If you stay away from this kind of software and stick to the sorts of stuff you can find in the Software Center or Flathub though then you should be fine.
I am a seasoned linux user and at this point even my potatoes run on Linux. I run a minimal debian system running Xfce and it works well for my needs. I recommend a stable system like Debian/Ubuntu/Linuxmint to start with. Just boot a LiveUSB and give it a test drive on your hardware.
Are these supported on Linux? That's going to be a major problem for you.
My Linux journey started around early 00’s too! Redhat Linux 7.1 to be precise. Still waiting for the year of the Linux on desktop when it’ll dethrone M$ Windoze 😄
Please find it and share the photos! I can't wait to revisit the feeling again.
This is the right kind of nostalgia 🥰
In my experience, Linux can be easier than Windows, and harder than macOS depending on the distribution you pick. With that said, Linux can also be as difficult as managing Windows 10 Enterprise for a company of 500 employees if you want it to be. In other words, it depends what problems you are trying to solve.
Since you described what you want to use it for, that will limit your options, as you want a more plug and play experience. I know some people who've replaced CORELdraw with Inkscape successfully as they move to Linux, and that could be worth exploring, but if you're stuck in your ways, you'd have to run it via WINE. Looking at the ratings for various CORELdraw versions on WINE here indicate that only versions 11 and X3 would be viable. If you require the latest version, and won't entertain Inkscape then you may be SoL. You'll have to do some experimentation here.
Regarding other software: LibreOffice, Firefox, and Thunderbird all work excellently on Linux, so no worries there. Regarding TurboTax, you would save $ by using one of the Free File Alliance members instead. Most or all of them support web interfaces including TurboTax.
If you want to be told what to do, use Linux Mint and run with it. More broadly though, I recommend trying a few distros out. Get some USB sticks, and give them a week trial run each if you are unsure. My personal recommendations would be to try out the latest versions of Linux Mint or Ubuntu. If you find they aren't fitting your needs I'd also check out Fedora, Pop!_OS, and Elementary OS. In terms of nuance differences, it often comes down to the user experiences (default frontends) they offer over much else for the average PC user.
What hardware are you looking to install Linux on? How new is it? (Sell date/year if it's a prebuilt, processor name if it's a custom build.) Does it include an NVIDIA, AMD, or Intel integrated graphics card?
The answers to these questions will help determine how many hoops you may need to jump through.
Ubuntu has the concept of "LTS", or long term support versions of their operating systems. These are supported for 5 years with regular updates and another 5 years for just security updates (someone correct me if I'm wrong). It looks like the latest desktop LTS just came out this month, so if you get it running that may give you a very stable system for a long time.
I'm not sure how many other distributions also have LTS or similar releases.
As others have suggested, the best way to test things out would be either through a VM or live cd. Many distributions give you the Live CD option on the same device you'd install from, so you can test it out without committing to the installation.
The short answer is "it's pretty easy if you have pretty normal hardware and pick one of a couple of specific mainstream distros". That said, Mint and Ubuntu have already been mentioned, but I do want to throw in my two cents on that:
I would avoid Ubuntu. For a long time it was the #1 "it just works" distro but recent versions are less predictable and Snap, its primary method of delivering apps, is kind of bad for technical reasons I won't bore you with unless you really want to know.
Mint is a great choice and is nowadays the most recommended with good reason. I will say I've had minor issues in the recent past with it not being able to get my wifi or BT hardware working, but it works the most often for the most people and you probably won't go wrong with it.
However, if you try it and do go wrong with it, my personal recommendation is Zorin OS, which is what I use. Anecdotes are not data, mind, but it's the only distro I've ever used that works all of the time on whatever I put it on, with no extra setup required out of the box except installing your apps. I currently have it installed on two PCs (a gaming rig and a miniPC) and three laptops of varying ages, and it's never not recognized all of the hardware on first boot. Performance-wise I find it as fast or faster than most mainstream distros. As a result, I recommend it more often than Mint, even though Mint is still a great OS.
RE: software: If you're dead-set on still using COREL then all of this may be academic. As others mentioned, I think Inkscape and Krita can get you there, and FWIW you can convert .CDR files to work with those apps, though note that YMMV on the quality of conversion, depending on what you're creating. TurboTax doesn't work in Linux but honestly if you don't have uniquely complicated taxes then I would just use the online version or something else entirely. Everything else you mentioned runs natively.
You will have to learn a bit, but if you can find an easy to use distribution you can minimize your time in the command line. Mint, PopOS, Ubuntu are pretty easy to work with.
A piece of advice I would offer is to not be afraid of the command line, but don't make big changes you're uncomfortable with using it. The fear is that you'll break something, so if you don't blindly make big changes to your system you won't understand yet, you'll be fine.
I'm partial to Aurora, which continuously updates based on Fedora and KDE (which is similar to the Windows UI). The idea is you can install from Flatpaks for GUI apps, brew for command line apps, and shove things into containers (small non-virtualized OS spaces) as needed for other things. With my caution above, you can get very far with distroboxes and Flatpaks, and it's how I switched to Linux full time after fifteen years dual-booting, but I don't have any Windows-exclusive workflows. The only issues I've had were with KDE's baloo indexer, which I disable in two seconds, and a driver issue for my GPU which I fixed with a rollback (Far easier than dealing with it in Windows: Roll back my image update, wait for the fix to hit Fedora and my image). There's no need for driver management once you install an image for your hardware profile, so everything pretty much just works OOTB.
I would recommend picking what you want and using a spare hard drive like others. You can get 1TB for $50 these days so it's not that big a deal.
Lucky for you, there's never been a simpler time to get into Linux.
Honestly, the best distro for you would probably be Linux Mint. Mint is based off of Ubuntu, and very easy to use, while also not being managed by Canonical, which has a history of making bad decisions that nobody likes. Linux Mint's default desktop environment, Cinnamon, is supposed to be very easy to use (I haven't used it in ages, but I remember it being very good around 2015–2016). You will need to update Mint occasionally, but updates are simple to do and it won't nag you like Windows or MacOS—you do not need to reinstall the OS in order to update.
Mint comes pre-installed with Firefox, Thunderbird, and LibreOffice. You will have some trouble with TurboTax and COREL, but you could download Steam and use Proton to run them; you could also download VirtualBox and run Windows, with TurboTax and COREL, through that.
I find that virt-manager is actually a better option for Linux VM hosts these days.
Seconding virt-manager.
I hope you’re able to adjust to an alternative to CORELdraw and CORELpaint. Some have mentioned Inkscape and Krita. I know that switching up a workflow is annoying and difficult, but you’ve already opened your mind to switching operating systems. So how far of a leap is it to try an alternative to these applications?
Good luck!
Ive tried Krita. It was ok. But I also have a ton of saved Corel files that dont necessarily open correctly in other apps so Im quite loathe to switch.
That’s unfortunate. It looks like there’s some comparability between Inkscape and Corel draw up to 2021, however it’s not great. Maybe in the future there will be better options for you.
Linux Mint is the friendliest distro.
You will have to learn/get used to some things, but they are minor.
I don't think the Corel software will run on Linux outside of WINE ( Windows emulator ). There is GIMP, but the interface is like the dashboard of a 747. You will need to relearn how you do things.
I've been using Mint for eight years now. The only issues I've had that were in any way serious were due to Nvidia drivers. Since my Nvidia card died, I made sure to get an AMD card instead and it works in the newer system I built in 2023 with zero problems. Gaming is fine for me through Steam, my main word processor is Libre Office and Firefox works well. I use VLC for videos with no issues there.
One of my older systems, from 2013, works well with Mint also, though I stick to an older kernel with it, and use the LTS version. That computer is only used occasionally, when I run into a video file that my TV doesn't like and I have company over to watch something on a larger screen.
OP's main stumbling block will be the Corel programs, and that can be solved with a VM if you so choose. I, personally, use an older, slow computer that I built back in 2015 for Windows 11. Rufus lets me bypass hardware blocks and so I have access to the two programs I need that still require Windows and I don't have to mess with a VM on my main machine. At least, that has been my rationale for keeping Windows 11 around, but since I finished my last book, I may not need this Windows 11 installation again for a long time. It may be gathering dust instead of doing anything useful.
All of the comments rating various flavors of Linux are well informed, good to read and accurate. My take is that if you're a turbo nerd and really want to learn how Linux works or computers work at a nuts and bolts level then follow their advice. I really enjoyed the ten years or so I used a Linux desktop. But if you want a system that works well that you don't have to reconfigure all the time and is based on a *nix, save yourself some agony and get a Mac.
Ironically I was a Mac evangelist since back in the days of the Apple IIe all the way up to about the time MacBooks came in. But if there ever was a company that traps you into its entire operating world more than Microsoft, its Apple. Trying to stay out of the corporate privacy killing world.
As someone who uses all three major platforms, if there’s any reason I’ve felt “trapped” on Apple stuff, it has much less to do with any attempt by Apple to produce such an effect and more to do with two things:
If those two things were magically fixed, moving over data wouldn’t be too bad for the most part. iCloud mail, notes, reminders, and calendar are all accessible via standard IMAP, CardDAV, and CalDAV. Most file formats are standard and open fine on other platforms or at minimum can be converted (e.g. Sketch documents). Probably the most difficult thing would be photos.
There are smaller things that smooth things over that would be missed (like Continuity and AirDrop) but those could be lived without if necessary.
It’s more minor, but Android also badly needs competition in the “not iOS” phone space. While Android is technically “good enough” it’s always felt… stilted? Stiff? Kinda slapdash, vaguely amateurish? I dunno, it’s missing something that I can’t put my finger on and it’s always bugged me.
I think this is a fairer statement to make since the advent of Apple Intelligence, as it has driven base spec mac hardware to come with a minimum of 16GB of RAM, making the entry level Mini and laptops more financially viable than before. In the case of the mini, it's quite a compelling choice. Before the change, they were just too expensive for most people. That said, it's still just swapping one behemoth for a slightly less shitty behemoth.
The best thing about linux is that you get to choose.
If what is most important to you is software that only runs on windows (coreldraw etc), then don't switch. This is the wrong attitude if you want to the switch to be a success. It's not a wrong attitude per se, I have a lot of sympathy for well oiled workflows, but it wont lead you to a successfully ditching Windows. You have to give dropping Windows primacy. Everything else needs to be subservient to that aim. Microsoft banks on this not being true, which is why they continue to treat their customers with contempt. I don't think there is anything wrong with valuing Windows only software highly, but there is a direct line to be drawn from there to the state of Windows 11.
Speaking from recent personal experience where I switched back to Mint after 5 years of Windows 10, I can say that the amount of time I've spent setting it up as compared to my first foray into Linux back in 2018 was considerably shorter.
The only couple of things I finagled for a bit were Redshift for blue light suppression and the sound settings. Everything else worked just fine. All the games I play work as well with Steam's Proton. As for design, others have commented on viable solutions. I do have a recommendation for the office suite to be Only Office, but that's up to personal preference.
Ubuntu based distros (Mint/Pop!_os) are regularly recommended for beginners, though recently I've seen Fedora showing up quite often as a beginner friendly distro as well.
If you want system stability above all else using an immutable spin like Silverblue might be a good option.
As far as your software use cases go, it may be possible to run COREL stuff via a windows VM (this may be tricky to setup if GPU acceleration is required), or it looks like they have a web version of Draw that you could potentially use as a stopgap while learning any native linux alternatives.
I'd also recommend against dual booting, unless you're quite comfortable with tinkering, especially if you're on a device with a single SSD or HDD. Most distros will do their best to avoid causing issues with the windows install, but it can happen, and there's a good chance you'll need to fiddle with BIOS/UEFI to alter your boot config. It's not exactly hard, but can be quite intimidating.
It'd be better to either trial with an older/spare device if you can or to try with a live image first. If you boot up a distro with a live image and hate it within minutes, it's worth checking out a different one, unless you really like to go in and customise everything.
One other thing to consider when making the switch is that Linux will never be exactly like Windows, so it may be frustrating to try a "Windows like" experience such as Mint (specifically Cinnamon). The first time I tried to make the switch I bounced off KDE because it was enough like what I was used to that my muscle memory was kicking in, but different enough that said muscle memory was less than helpful. In the end I decided to go in the opposite direction and force myself to learn something completely new (in my case i3wm, EndeavourOS provides a decent config as an option during install) which meant I was much more intentional about what I was doing and I enjoyed the experience a lot more. For me it was really useful to go for a "clean break" from the Windows experience (though I am still stuck using it at work, sadly)
You can check if the software you use can be found on Linux (or an acceptable substitute if it cannot) by installing it in a virtual machine, which will let you try out a distribution of your choice without affecting your current Windows installation. I'll echo most of the rest of the thread and recommend Linux Mint. It fits the "just works" criteria very well, has a solid knowledge base and community support if you do run into issues, and its flagship desktop environment, Cinnamon, has an interface layout that is familiar to users coming from Windows, which should help getting used to a new OS.
You can use Virtualbox to set up the virtual machine. The virtualization process has limitations that wouldn't be there on a full install (like the virtual machine not being able to directly use your GPU and having to share resources with the host OS which will limit performance), but it should be enough for testing things out.
The installation media itself can also be used for further testing prior to installation, as most distros provide a fully working live environment alongside the installer. Note that the internal file system isn't persistent, so any changes you make to the environment (other than editing files on your machine's actual storage, of course) will be reverted upon restarting.
There are quite a few Windows programs which can be made to work using Wine (though testing reports for CorelDRAW in particular aren't encouraging) so that's something you can try if you can't find an alternative you're happy with. If that doesn't pan out either, if you have a decently powerful computer you could also go with running Linux as your main OS but keeping a Windows virtual machine that you can occasionally launch for whichever programs you can't do without and will not run on Linux, which would let you reduce dealing with Windows to a minimum while not having to abandon the software you depend on. Note that if you go that route, while Virtualbox should also work fine, I personally prefer using virt-manager on machines where Linux is the host OS.
As for a more direct answer to the question in the title, I'd say that by now Linux is pretty much as easy to use as Windows for the average user, with the obvious caveat of software compatibility, and even that has improved massively over the years. Naturally, since you'll be dealing with a different OS there will be some idiosyncrasies and different ways of doing things you will need to adjust to, but I'd say the goal set by the current general purpose distributions to provide a user-friendly experience has been achieved.
EDIT: One more thing I've noticed, CorelDRAW seems to have a web version available which would therefore run just fine on a browser on Linux, and Corel also offers Corel Vector which is web-based as well. Might be worth looking into.
In this kind of topics I always encounter the same, a lot of people saying that is fine and works for them. But any time I try linux it is a disaster. And every time I comment about I got a million of people saying, that they have no issue on their system, that is my fault for having certain hardware, or that windows/privative bugs must be much better than linux ones or my favourite, you chose the wrong distro, next time try XYZ.
My experience has been with fairly old hardware (one would expect it would be supported better, but that is not the case), I have got issues with the nvidia drivers (1050 TI and 765M). The open source driver is garbage, to the point that I got more fps with the intel on board than with the 765M on nouveau. Nvidia drivers are pain to install, often clicking on "privative drivers" check does nothing, and you are still on a trip to install them yourself (Ubuntu actually install them tho). Have you got anything older than 3 generations? You are doomed, you need to use an older driver, which one? God knows. Would it work seamless? Hell no.
Using propietary nvidia drivers means you need to use likely X11, wayland is not properly supported by nvidia, but, what does most of the easy distros use nowadays? Wayland, yes, the one that works a bit more flaky with the GPU that have 80% of the market according to Steam survey.
Nvidia is not the only hardware guilty of failing, I have had issues with motherboards sound and network drivers too. Even in one old motherboard that was approved to work on whatever version existed in 2012 of redhat linux and Suse linux. The answer I got? Complain to Realtek or buy supported hardware, likely USB hardware which is (claimed to be) supported better.
The installer are easy, if you decide to wipe out your hard drive and start from zero. Otherwise be ready to learn what is a swap partition, a boot, etc... If you have some important data in the hard drive, don't mess around, disconnect internally before installing.
NTFS support is good.
Supported games (if you manage to make it work through the driver) are surprisingly very good. Do not trust protondb or similar. I got a few games that I have been unable to run in spite of being gold rated. But could be an issue with my aforementioned "old hardware".
Support, forums are hit or miss, I have very good experiences on openSuse forum, where a couple of people went the extramille to help me installing Nvidia. Can't say the same about Fedora, in which an absolute asshole, demonised me for showing a video of my issue on imgur (because I was unable to explain otherwise) and somehow, they couldn't see the video (the video was there, visible with my phone and computer).
And the last issue for me is the updates. Every single linux system I got (except raspberry) has broken with the simple action of updating the system. Who is to blame for that? Me of course. In one case because I installed tumbleweed, which is a rolling distro, and you must not leave it without update for 1 month, because the system can't handle it.
Other time, also me, because I clicked on update all button on KDE software center, when in reality, I shall have written certain command on the console before hand clicking a button that was nagging on my system tray to press update.
I would like to have a seamless experience of install linux, spend 3 days configuring (with help) and then have a system I can use and forget, maybe even install in my moms computer without being afraid I will get the console after updating the system (but hey, dont worry because opensuse has a tool to revert to a previous point, just need my mom to know the command, and know when to use it). But honestly, today, that is not the case.
As I said, that is my experience, always in 10 years old computers, with nvidia drivers, and trying to use the ports on the motherboard, without acquiring new hardware. I am sure, that after this comment I will get a lot of replies trying to invalidate my experience. And telling me how linux is the superwell tested software that runs everywhere, and their dad has been running ubuntu since years ago with not a single issue.
My experience has been with Fedora, OpenSuse, Ubuntu and Manjaro. Now, be prepared when you say something about your distro, because you should try now, Debian Testing, Linux Mint, Arch Linux, Gentoo... instead.
Do you have any alternatives? No, not much, you can deal with W11 if your hardware supports it. You can try the windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC which has support until 2032, pirating the system, because there is no other way. Or you can also start learning linux and tweaking around if that is your thing, just be prepared that anybody saying it is easy is lying. It is easier than before, not easy.
I don't want this to look like I'm trying to invalidate your pain, but I disagree with your last paragraph completely. For most people, with most relatively modern hardware, you will be able to install linux and get most things to work - first time, with no effort.
And that statement applies equally to W11 in my experience as well...
If you want to test this, download a live image of any linux distro and see what happens when you boot from it. You can check your hardware works. You can install software and see if that works. You can do almost anything in that live environment, just be aware it isn't persistent.
If you don't like it, it doesn't work for you, whatever, just reboot and you're back where you started. It's the ultimate try before you buy, but you don't have to buy it if you decide to keep it!
On to some other points:
Finally, one area to highlight which may or may not be important to you - linux absolutely sucks at fingerprint readers. If you have one, expect it not to work. There are drivers for about 11 but I've yet to have a laptop with one which is supported.
Linux also sucks at hibernating/sleeping and then waking up. I'm using Debian and I usually have to restart if I leave my laptop alone for awhile.
Whereas my MacBook, running macOS, I can sleep it for a few seconds or a few days, as many times as I want to, and it instantly comes back completely solid with no issues at all, every single time.
If you haven’t already, it may be worth checking to make sure that Wake on LAN (“wake for network access”) is disabled while on battery. Ever since I’ve done that, sleep on my M-series Macs has been consistently flawless.
My experience with Mac laptops was pretty horrid. It would work fine if I left it plugged in, but if I slept it from full charge on a Friday evening and left it in a bag until Monday morning it would be between barely alive or just dead come Monday. I had a few of them over the years for work and I pretty consistently had this issue of it burning through the battery way too fast while asleep. So in my experience Mac also sucks at sleep, but the credit I will give it is that even though the battery management was terrible it usually seemed to somewhat gracefully hibernate prior to dying.
I assume not everyone has as bad luck as I, but the Macbooks I used over the years for work were some of the machines I least enjoyed using due to various little problems like this. For example, I also think the dock behavior is fundamentally broken on vertically stacked monitors (when you put your cursor at the bottom a screen it assumes you want the dock to jump there, but on vertically stacked monitors your cursor goes through that zone frequently and sometimes just causes the dock to hop around unexpectedly), but like everything on Mac it just isn't fixable because obviously no users would want to be able to anchor their docks to specific displays.
That's very surprising to me. The new silicon M series MacBooks are amazing, I've never had an issue in any way.
Bummer..
Admittedly I disliked them all for various other usability reasons so it makes the various issues more memorable. I normally just try not to complain about my subjective issues with Mac as an OS too much, but it did astonish me that something as simple as unplugging for the weekend was so often broken for me.
Ultimately I found I liked Mac the best when I started using it as basically nothing more than a container for Outlook, Slack, Firefox, SSH connections, and VsCode (making heavy use of the ssh extension to avoid having to deal with even more Mac problems). The less I used of it the more tolerable it became, eventually reducing it to basically the expectations of a cheap Chromebook as I didn't feel I could trust it to do more than that correctly. I actively avoided installing things like Xcode for as long as possible because somehow Apple's own software was some weird kind of cancer on the system doing things stealing default handling of file extensions that it very much should not have (has anyone ever wanted to open json files in Xcode, a program that takes ages to start up and doesn't even format them that nicely?!).
This just hasn't been my experience either. I have a working linux machine, but it's my home server and playing in linux friendly territory. There are several common use cases for a normal windows or mac user that linux still seems to be extremely hit or miss on.
Soooooo my last experience with this, less than a year ago:
Windows: Click on the Nvida application, watch their stupid app pop up, click install drivers, choose express, it's done.
Linux: Derp around trying to find the drivers. Find the wrong ones. Try again. Ah ok it works now.
That doesn't sound too bad, but I've also been gaming for 20 years and know what to do when the "click here" button doesn't work. I would not expect many other people I know to figure that sort of thing out.
I recognise that I'm completely abnormal in many ways, so perhaps this is just another example, but the only things that irritate me when I flip between win/mac and linux are MS related. Specifically, the lack of a native Teams client and the lack of a native OneDrive client. Both of which I use for work, and both of which work "fine-I-guess" in a browser. There are other tools you can use, depending on distro, but they aren't worth the effort over just using the browser versions.
I think this must be distro specific. Lots of distributions will include packaged Nvidia drivers in the iso, so you just download the Nvidia iso and it installs them at boot time. Less effort than in Windows!
Many others will have them included in a non-free repo with clear instructions on their website of how to obtain and install them trivially. Don't get me wrong, next time I buy a GPU I will probably go team red, but even with the shoddy linux support that Nvidia provides, I haven't had any issues installing on any Nvidia GPU (10 series, 20 series mobile and 30 series mobile) on any distro i've tried.
I mean… I hate to being that guy but… I have been using the proprietary nvidia drivers for a GTX 1060, you mentioned having a 1050ti. And worked okay on all those distros, except Ubuntu. I am a natural distrohopper, so I’m not sure what would be your issue, are you using a laptop or desktop pc? Could be something related to the hardware.
For reference I have an asus mb, a Ryzen 3600 and the Nvidia GPU, even a pen tablet works out of the box
I wrote and deleted a comment because I too, didn't want to be that guy. I agree with their sentiment though, really older consumer hardware generally has flaky Linux support (if at all). Companies have really stepped up their first party Linux support in recent years, so newer hardware generally has better support (soo many things have launch day Linux support now!).
Older hardware was lucky to get community support, if at all. E.g. wifi adapters. I remember trying to get Ubuntu working on an old desktop with wifi, and I kid you not, the solution was to: install windows, install the windows wifi driver, find and rip some driver files to usb, install Ubuntu, feed the files to some community project which extracted the proprietary blobs needed to interface with the adapter and setup the Linux driver/wrapper, and tada you have wifi.
So I feel their pain... But the answer really is keep using windows or get supported hardware.
I understand the sentiment, but the comment also implies that we are lying if we say that we have a good experience using Linux. The issues he’s having can be something else entirely that we don’t know about it, so it just picked my curiosity also I wasn’t aware that some of my hardware it’s almost 10 years old, ouch.
Most well known brands have decent Linux support nowadays, I had a WiFi and Bluetooth dongle lying around and for my surprise they worked without my intervention. I think most of the issues one could have with Linux are with laptops, it’s been a while since I installed Linux in a laptop, my experience with that device was kinda okay, but that laptop it’s not anything fancy or esoteric so, that could explain it.
I have tried to use linux in several different hardware and I have been able to success only on raspberries.
In the 1050ti case I tried Fedora and the nvidia did not give me a problem, in that case it was the sound card of the intel motherboard (which is supported by redhat linux), the issue being that every few minutes you would lose audio for a microsecond and come back, like someone was inserting a headphone in the jack and then remove it immediately.
My experience is based in a number of computers that will not support W11, and I tried for the very same reason than OP, they won't be supported anymore.
And unfortunately, none of the 3 computers I tried did work with linux. And the one that I manage to do (a clevo laptop with opensuse tumbleweed) broke by itself after I tried to update it one month and a half later.
I wish I could ditch windows, but I don't have neither the time nor the energy to babysit my computer every month. I also don't want to distrohop, the whole concept of distrohopping is the opposite to use linux, a distrohopper is most of the time, installing linux, not using it. I need my OS to be install, configure, and from that point be "use" with the only interaction from me to click a update button when it appears.
I mentioned the distro-hop part to show that I went through that installation part and that I tested several. Recently I just started using one main distro (EndeavorOS) and have one specific partition to try new distros for time to time and have an idea on “what I’m losing”(mostly nothing); I just like to form my own opinion on something by using it and not based on others people opinion.
The audio issue is weird specially on fedora since it tend to work mostly with anything, and since I have an external dac I don’t have any issue regarding audio.
The openSUSE issue you mentioned is not usual(I have completed updates after two months not using it and then works fine), but it does happen(broke an installation after an update, like two days after) so I think I know what happened, I’m going to assume that you added the packman repository to install some codecs, by doing this there are some packages that are shared between the main repo and packaman sometimes updating the system you are prompted to change the repository from which the package is installed, this is a huge pain point about using openSUSE and I would prefer if they just included the codecs necessary to play specific media in the main repos. Packman servers are slower so the updates take longer, I believe that because having packman packages and main repos packages installed is the main reason a breakage in openSUSE can happen, that now exist Packman essentials, that just have minimal packages to be able to play media and such.
Ironically for some reason I really like openSUSE, I’m not sure why some people say that it’s not a beginner friendly distro, one advantage they have it’s yast, that allows you to manage system settings, UI is awful but usable, documentation iits not that great though and zypper can be slow. I was reading some other comments you made, and honestly I use the terminal because it’s easier to do some things in the terminal and faster, I think that nowadays using the terminal it’s optional and not as mandatory as it was before, still is nice thing to learn how to use
For the use case you mentioned I would highly recommend using Debian, openSUSE Leap it’s the stable release model for SUSE things don’t change often here so there are less breakeage since the cadence for updates are lower and maybe Mint. Alma Linux it’s more server oriented but using it for desktop it’s not that inconvenient also has the advantage of being stable too.
The difference between a command and a gui is that with a gui, I read the gui, I read what it does, then I click it. If I need to remove the effect, I just go to the same place and unclick it, easy.
With commands, I don't know the command, because I don't know any command, I imagine I could read all man pages to find the command I want, or I can ask online, someone will tell me a command and I will just put it.
Now, I don't know what that command has done, and also, I have no way to reverse it, because there is no undo, but just a different command that I need somehow to find out.
Obviously, if you know all the commands, what they do, how to activate and deactivate options, and the effects they have. Then command are better. But expecting someone with an older hardware to come from windows, into a new system, guiding them through mystic commands like a wizard reading a spell. That is definitely not what I would expect as easy.
The issue you mention with Opensuse and the packages is the perfect example of an issue that should not happen, at all. If the problem are the codecs, give the codecs, don't complicate the life of the user. Just make a simple, do you want to install codecs, and when the user click yes, it should be done without causing any further issue. I got similar experience with nvidia drivers, fedora ask you if you want to activate them, you click yes, then they add the repository, but do not install them... It should be selected the best driver and install for the user.
And in no case, breaking the system through a update should happen, if it does happens, means that the distro needs more tester/testing before going for the updates.
The problem with the stable releases is kind of the opposite, when you got a bug in your software, that does not get solved because, you can't update to a newer version, because that is not stable.
Is there any solution? I don't know. I guess it is better to have a bug than to have a broken system.
That’s an advantage, I mean you can review the command, some of them show you what are they going to do before accepting the changes and there are messages that are shown on the cli and not the GUI but whatever, I think that yast it’s the tool that does this better from I could test. I don’t use the guis that often and it’s not because they are bad it’s just that I already got used to other things, the times that I used the gui tools from the district they’re okayish.
Regarding the codecs and third party repos, they do it due to legal reasons iirc, Fedora, SUSE and Ubuntu, since they are US corpo backed distros and some codecs are proprietary to avoid any legal confrontation they don’t ship the codecs, SUSE is from Germany so I don’t fully get why they do that though. It’s easy to add the repo codecs but… yeah since it’s fro a third party it can be a pain. Debian does this better, because with Debian you just add the non free repo and that’s it.
That a distro it’s stable doesn’t mean you are not going to receive critical fixes for the packages. And on windows there are updates that also break your system, on Linux does happen but it’s not frequent and I tend to use rolling release distros. However I understand how you feel about the issues. The transition requires some degree of stubbornness haha. I started using Linux when I was 15, then I just went on and off with the switch. And it has been 3-4 years since I have been using Linux as my main OS
My answer was going more in the sense, that every time I see a topic asking about this, I only read replies that say that everything is easy and there are no issues anymore. Well In my experience, it is not easy. It is not something absolutely impossible, as you say, with some stubbornness and potentially assuming that you will have to go through 4 reinstallation in a 2 month period because you are learning around the way.
But that is not easy. It is doable.
Things like the codecs, the proprietary drivers , the fact that you are alone every time you have a problem (forums are... other thing) or you have someone you can rely to ask, the guides are not copy paste, they are for distro X or Y, version Z or W, and you need to understand and use it as a guide, not follow perfectly.
It is doable, but the user needs to spend a chunk of time to do it. No matter what distro it uses, and it needs to learn the system.
I'm surprised you haven't tried a distro that focuses more on gaming and supporting Nvidia graphics cards if you're consistently having so many hardware-related issues. I had some graphics card-related issues with Ubuntu in the past, but they were mostly solved by switching to a distro that includes the required drivers out of the box (in my case, Pop!OS). In my experience these distros tend to be recommended pretty quickly in Linux-related spaces when you mention Nvidia graphics card problems with Ubuntu. But I suppose that depends on exactly how "outdated" your other hardware is.
I think it's pretty ridiculous to claim that anyone who says they had an easy time switching to Linux is lying. Just because you've had a hard time doesn't mean that everyone else has experiences that even approach how difficult yours have been. There are a ton of variables that play into how difficult switching to linux would be and it's perfectly possible for someone else to genuinely have had an easy time while you had a hard one -- whether that's because of differences in your hardware, your choice of distro, your skill level, or your software needs. Your experiences are not universal, and it's insulting to insist that people who have different experiences than you must be lying.
This is again the trap that I have been falling, every time I got an issue I am suggested a new distro. Every time I try a new Distro I got a new set of different quandaries to deal with. There is not such a thing like the perfect distro.
In my experience, (and by reading some people that are linux fans) reinstalling linux, solving issues, is it a common theme. Honestly, much more common that the time I spend solving issues on my computer since windows 7. Indeed, the computer I am writing now, it has gone from windows 7 to windows 10, and it was installed originally at some point in 2014, working since then.
I never said they are lying, they probably like to tweak with their computers, and don't see something breaking and spending 3 hours to fix it like an issue. When OpenSuse broke after updating (literally only thing I did was "zypper dup" ) I was told that there was no issue because I can use the console my computer was booting to just restore as it was working before!
Well, when I turn my computer it is mostly because I want to use to play, talk, browser, see some videos, download stuff. Not to enjoy the restoring tool to a previous state.
Linux requires tinkering. It has required in my case every time I have tried in something else that is not a raspberry. It could be not the case for everyone, yes. It has been that case every single time I tried on non-raspberry hardware.
You did literally say they're lying (emphasis mine):
I'm not actually a big fan of tinkering with Linux, and I have never had an issue that required even close to 3 hours to fix since I switched to Linux, even on the rare occasions when something did break. And I have an Nvidia graphics card too, fwiw. I'm not gonna say Linux is for everyone, but your refusal to acknowledge that other people may have had a much smoother transition is getting absurd. There's no problem with you personally not wanting to use Linux for convenience's sake, that's fine, and it's not perfect. But insisting that we all must just be lying about not having problems remotely as severe as yours upon switching and that it is guaranteed to be your experience for anyone who switches is wrong. And, frankly, insulting.
Have you had a linux install you have not opened command line at all?
Not even to configure anything.
If you could use a graphical tool but used command line instead, it does not count, as it assumes that the graphical tool will work as intended.
Because I haven't. The closest was with Ubuntu, but I had issues with steam because the ubuntu steam version is something else, and installing the .deb (from steam) required me to open the console to uninstall the previous (clicking on uninstall didn't work) and installing the deb from the site.
Or maybe it is just me that I am unlucky, and linux does work perfectly for everybody else but me.
I am going to need to start collecting screenshots of twitter and mastodon when people said they had issues with X or Y from Linux to need to prove my point.
So at first "I had an easy time with Linux" is a lie I'm telling because I must've had problems that took 3 hours of tinkering to fix, and when I said I hadn't done that, magically the goalposts move to "never required use of the command line." I work in tech, so I used the command line regularly on Mac and Windows. You've made your opinion on Linux clear, so OP has that information. Stop continuing the conversation by openly insulting people and calling them liars.
You’re kind of asking the wrong person this question. Anyone techy is going to use the CLI tools because they are faster and allow for more efficient workflows; many are using it because they are developers and those tools would be severely hampered by having to finagle a GUI for the countless options they would have to configure.
If you asked me that question, I would say yes, I had had that experience when I was a child. Mandrake Linux just worked with all GUI tools. So did Ubuntu. But as I distro hopped and put together bespoke Linux systems I learned the CLI tools and understood how powerful they were. Why on earth would I load a slow cumbersome graphical package manager application when I could just type in
apt install applicationand be done with it?I get plenty of use out of CLI package managers, but graphical managers have their place for me too. They’re nice for browsing the options available for those times when you need a tool but don’t know exactly what it might be.
Frankly, this is one of the most common linux problems. Nvidia's linux support is very poor, and that is entirely Nvidia's fault - they vacillate between indifferent and frosty to open source depending on their publicist's mood that day. Considering the money that company has it wouldn't take them more than a couple of months to kick out killer open source drivers, even for older cards, if they threw more than a handful of talented engineers at the problem. The PR win is not that important to them yet, and they'd rather be an AI company than a GPU company right now.
I imagine they still think that keeping the 'proprietary trade secrets' of their hardware obfuscated by the closed source drivers is actually important to or advantageous to them in any way. I sometimes wonder if that's the real reason they keep dragging their feet... as if their drivers contained anything that a competitor would want to steal in the first place. You're a hardware company, Nvidia. The software is a cost for you, not a benefit, not a product, not a secret - and if you open source it, you can probably cut those costs dramatically. Get a clue and save some money.
Despite saying they are moving to fully open source drivers that hasn't happened yet. The open drivers are still slapdash and don't support older hardware as well as their proprietary drivers (which are still noticeably worse performance on Linux than on Windows). They are taking more heat over this all the time as linux becomes fashionable, so eventually I think they'll have no choice but to clean up their act... but I wouldn't hold out hope for older cards being well supported by new releases.
I switched to AMD, everything works great. I did install the proprietary AMD drivers so I could run a local copy of Deepseek and other AI workloads on the card, which isn't yet supported by their open source drivers. The proprietary drivers are just slightly more performant than the open source driver on gaming - but not enough of a difference that I'd bother with them if I wasn't also tinkering with the AI capabilities. So far I haven't had as much as one single hiccup or issue related to my AMD card in two years. It's rock solid.
I know this - I'm done with Windows. Any future computers I build will be designed exclusively with Linux and BSD derivative operating systems in mind, and I will purchase my hardware based on what is performant without hassles. If a product can't support that, then as far as I'm concerned it isn't real hardware yet, and it's not like I'm lacking in choices. Many companies do sell fully linux/bsd compatible systems, servers, and laptops. Some will pre-install linux and offer technical support, and this is a (slowly) growing trend.
I guess that's my random rant for the day. :P
The thing is that me as user, I honestly don't care if the blame is on Linux, on Nvidia, on Realtek or anything else. I just want it to work.
The laptop I tried with the nvidia 765M is a Clevo laptop, which allegedly was supposed to be linux friendly. And in my last experience with it, it isn't. The Nvidia 765M is not supported at all in any distro, not even installing latest propietary drivers, and the dual GPU system that carries is also not supported by any distro.
Being about 12 years old, I don't think it will be ever supported. My point being, I am not sure if any purchase you do today that is linux-friendly, will ever be linux friendly in the future, or like my Clevo laptop, it will be too old to care anymore.
How easy would it be to install W11 on the Clevo? From what I've gleaned from a 4 min search, you need to either regedit in W10 prior to upgrade to allow you to bypass the security checks, or use a 3rd party tool to create a custom bootable image that doesn't check at install.
And if you do manage to install it, there's no guarantee you'll get updates, with MS stating you may not even get security updates.
Does that sound trivial for a normal person using a laptop? It sounds to me like it's not supported by MS and never will be either... So why are you so critical of linux not supporting it if your OS of choice doesn't?
To be clear, I'm still not trying to dismiss your experience, and I'm still not trying to say that Linux is the right choice for everybody. I'm not trying to say that it's perfect - it's far from it. But your experiences are yours, and do not necessarily represent the broader community.
I am critical for the very same reason that I have been hearing since 18 months ago, switch to linux because Windows 10 support is ending and it won't be supported in Windows 11.
Whilst the reality is more likely that the computer will need to go to scrap or to keep in an absolute offline environment because it is not supported by windows nor linux.
If the linux community really would like to take the opportunity of a big shift with w10 end of life support, they do need to do way more testing and support of the old hardware. And by linux community I don't mean you, I mean the big distro space.
You can't have a system (OpenSuse tumbleweed) in which you get a notification from kde to press update, press update, it gives you an error, saying it can't be updated, saying no other information about it, ask online, tell me to use yast dup, use that break completely the system to the point that open in console and then being blamed by using tumbleweed and not updating in 45 days. That is not a good experience for the user, definitely is not a good experience for me, as user.
I am not sure what is the right choice here, but the user should not be fixing distro errors. This is something that needs to be. If I am using Arch, Debian or Gentoo, I understand the user wants to tweak stuff. If I am using a premade distro, honestly, I am expecting not opening the command line for anything, not even installing software out from the repositories, it should be solved within desktop.
Tumbleweed is a rolling release distribution. This means that as soon as a package is updated by the supplier of the package, it's included in the distribution (after passing some basic tests depending on distro). It's left to the user to determine whether they want that or not. The distribution is not meant for new users.
That said, the ability to roll back changes is great for a rolling release distribution because it means you can test out new packages and revert to a known good state if there are issues. You see this as a negative. I see it as a clear positive. How many times have you installed something in the MS ecosystem for it to go "a bit wrong", and the cleanup can be a nightmare!
I see your point, but if it is a developer distribution to test things maybe it should not be the first option on OpenSuse webpage: https://www.opensuse.org/ (I read left to right, so it is the first option to me), also the text which appears to me in Spanish describing Tumbleweed says:
"Consiga los paquetes de Linux más nuevos con nuestra versión de actualización continua. ¡Rápido! ¡Integrado! ¡Estabilizado! ¡Probado!"
You will have to take my word for the English translation but it reads as:
Get the newer Linux distribution with our rolling update version. Fast! Integrated! STABLE! and TESTED!
I can definitely say that in my case, it wasn't stable, and it wasn't tested. If the use of the rolling release is just a beta testing version for Leap in which enthusiast do the heavy work of testing, it should not be appearing before Leap, it could be hidden in scrolling like MicroOS do. And it should be labelled as this version is unstable and for testing purposes.
I take your point here regarding which they promote first, but they're better known for Tumbleweed than for Leap, and they aren't trying to make it a beginner distribution. I doubt they care much about attracting newcomers to linux to Tumbleweed. I would imagine they would prefer to convert more advanced users instead.
In English their wording for Tumbleweed suggests they're aimed at power users, but leap is their OS for newcomers:
vs
Sadly I think you chose the wrong distribution. If you'd gone Leap you may have been much happier with the outcome (or not, it could still have gone wrong).
I will end this with a general statement for OP, which hopefully will help to clarify some things:
Some distributions of linux are known as rolling releases. Some examples include Arch(btw), OpenSUSE Tumbleweed, Debian Rawhide & Testing, NixOS, Gentoo, Rhino and many more. These, generally speaking, require more effort to keep up to date then periodic release distributions such as Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian Stable, Mint, Pop! OS, Nobara, MX Linux etc
These releases tend to have an update cycle every 6 months, and some also offer LTS versions which are updated every two years.
As a new user, more frequent changes are likely to include more frequent problems which need to be fixed, so I would never recommend a new user to a rolling release distribution. I'd suggest looking at the more popularly mentioned distributions that you generally see in threads such as this, and try that instead.
With the advent of Snaps, app images and Flatpaks (ignoring politics of which is better), it's much easier nowadays to have a stable OS and still gain access to frequently updated applications which shouldn't impact on the OS deployment like in the good old days, which means there's more value to the average user to pick up a slower updating distro...
But it is not even that easy. If I want to buy, today, a motherboard in the market that is 100% compatible with linux. There is not such a website to tell you so. And if that site exist, it is definitely not popular enough to come my way, three months ago when I was looking to buy a new computer and I want to be supported by linux.
If you want it, the information is available to you. As a quick example, Phoronix are excellent for hardware reviews on linux:
https://www.phoronix.com/
There's also a plethora of suppliers who provide laptop and desktop systems which are built for linux. They often include the installation of a distribution and will include support. Examples:
Please note, I selected one here with a leaning to US and one with a leaning to EU buyers. I have no affiliation with either, and no direct experience with either.
Some mainstream manufacturers also test and sometimes support linux on their hardware (Dell and Lenovo being two that leap to mind).
The problem with suppliers is that they try to sell you a whole computer, and to be honest, it is quite pricey. My computer case works and is fine, and I would like to select the power supply myself. They do not sell the motherboard, and when they use a motherboard in the market, they refuse to tell you which one it is, and one needs to figure it out by the specifications.
From the Tuxedo I believe they are using the MSI mag b650 tomahawk wifi. Which is the motherboard that I had in mind.
I didn't know the phoronix website, but I did try to see if they got a review of that motherboard, and either I am stupid, or I haven't found one, apparently they are using one of them for a benchmark, but no review. I went to the motherboard section, and the first motherboard review that makes any sense for consumer user is this one from November 2022. https://www.phoronix.com/review/asrock-x670e-pg
Not saying the information is not available, but it is not what I would consider easy to find, unless you want to go through the route of buying a whole system. (Assuming that it will work with zero issues)
You would recognise me the site is a bit clunky to use, you have to look one by one to be able to find one that works.
https://linux-hardware.org/?id=board:micro-star-mag-b650-tomahawk-wifi-ms-7d75-1-0&page=1#status
This one fore example (which was what I had in mind seems to work).
However, I know for sure that Fedora 48 had issues with this moderboard (in my case with sound) and yet still shows as works on every Distro. https://linux-hardware.org/?id=board:intel-dq77mk-aag39642-500
Also I know a friend has the MPG B550 Gaming Plus which appears as work: https://linux-hardware.org/?id=board:micro-star-mpg-b550-gaming-plus-ms-7c56-1-0 and the audio does not work unless they have a headphone jack inserted in the frontal. And it does not appear that problem in the web.
Regarding Corel's products, I had a look. The more recent versions are not supported at all even under emulation, for much the same reason that Photoshop is not supported. That said, there are a number of alternatives out there. One that I haven't seen mentioned yet is Photopea which is a web-app (so it runs anywhere). It's free to use and there is a pro version (it's like $50). It supports CMYK and it is designed as a professional tool with regular feature updates. I'd have a look and see if it might be able to scratch your Corel itch.
If you're into the Google space, Google Chrome Flex is Google's version of running a Chromebook on your own hardware, and it's pretty easy to work with, you can even run Linux within it if you so choose.
Otherwise I'd recommend Mint or Ubuntu as well. There are different Desktop environments, and in my experience, Lubuntu is close enough to old school Windows that I can work with it, but the further away you get from established distributions of Linux, the harder troubleshooting is going to be.
None of us will truly know if it will "work" and I mean work with out any issues, it's heavily hardware dependent. Linux will always require work. Learn about live environments, dual boot or try it out via usb loader and if none if that makes sense, welcome to GNU/Linux. At this point though, most distro's will work across broad hardware choices. I'd try to steer you towards PopOs, it seems to be the most user friendly and or linux mint. Online searches will tell you more about your specific use cases such as coraldraw alternatives or compatibility via emulation.